I'm sorry it has taken so long for me to post and update from my surgery. I won't bore you with the moment by moment details of my recovery so I'll try to hit on just the main things.
Surgery went as expected. I took the Valium and it knocked me for a freaking loop... to say the least :) It kicked in about 5 minutes after we left the house. We had a 20 minute drive to my doctors office. I ended up crying most of the way to her office. I had no idea why I was even sad. I think my emotions were on overload and my nerves were finally shot. When I got to the doctors, apparently everything became funny, lol. My mom had to tell me to quit laughing. Although the Valium was helping me stay relaxed it for SURE did not help with the pain. I felt like my leg was on fire while they were administering the numbing medication and the idea that they were cutting into my leg was a little too much for me to handle. Before going in for surgery, mom gave me a sock monkey. She said I could keep it over my eyes... that's exactly what I did with it.
Recovery was a bit of a roller coaster. I found out day 2 that the Tylenol 3 they gave me was making me really emotional and angry. By Saturday afternoon I had to stop taking it. It made my face feel funny and I found myself crying in Gap after Paul called me to tell me he found a suit he wanted to buy. Mom asked me why I was crying and I told her I was mad at Paul for wanting to buy a new suit. HAHA... totally not like me!
I was under strict instructions to rest for about a week. Yeah... that did not happen. Friday, after surgery, I came home and slept a lot. Mom and Paul took care of everything for me. We ordered pizza for dinner and watched the Olympics. Saturday I was already tired of sitting around the house so mom and I drove into town and went shopping at the mall. Paul went to buy his suit and then met us at the mall. It was shopping with mom and having dinner with Mom, Paul and our friend Todd. I could NOT walk Saturday without being in horrible pain and my leg cramping really bad so I snagged Paul's crutches from his motorcycle accident and off I went. If you think I'm not graceful on my feet, you should see me on crutches. It's quite a site. I think Paul was convinced I was going to kill myself. My mom was afraid I was going to do something and hurt my leg, or tear open my stitches. Sunday we went to my in laws for dinner, Monday the 3 of us hung out at home and did not do much of anything and on Tuesday mom and I drove to Short Pump, VA to do some shopping for her trip to Utah. By Tuesday I was walking around pretty well. It felt so great to get out of the house for the day :) Wednesday mom and I got up about 8 am and started cleaning the house. We were scheduled to have an open house that next weekend while Paul and I were on vacation. We cleaned from 8am until about 10:30pm with a break for Lunch at Chic Fil A to support marriage between a man and a woman and to do a little last minute decoration shopping for my 2 bathrooms. Thursday I had to have mom at the airport at 5:30 am :( I won't lie... I cried from the airport all the way across town to the city bus shop where they do repairs on police cars (I had to pick Paul up from there). I have missed my mom so much over the past 7 months. I can't wait til the say I live close to her again. I can honestly say if it was not for my mom, I don't think my house would have been nearly as ready for our open house/vacation as it was! Thanks mom for everything you did!!!!!
After dropping mom off at the airport, I picked up Paul and we had breakfast at Burger King. We decided since we had to be at the D.C. by 4am the next morning to catch a 6am flight to Denver, Co, we would stay awake until about 4pm and go to sleep until around midnight and leave then for DC. We were so tired by the time we got home at 8:30 that we both crashed... but were wide awake by 1pm. We ran some errands, packed out bags and laid around the house until close to midnight. We left for the airport and EVEN with stopping for breakfast, we were at the airport by 2:30 am. Southwest did not open until 4am so we tried to sleep on this bench looking thing for a bit. The bench turned out to be the a/c register and I woke up about 15 minutes after falling asleep totally freezing my rump off. That was an epic fail! So, there we were... wide awake. We checked out bags and went to wait for our flight. Once we made it on the plane I think we were both asleep before the plane hit 30,000 feet. Sounds nice, doesn't it???? Apparently I tried sleeping in every position possible. I slept on Paul's shoulder, with my head against the seat in front of me, with my head in Paul's lap, etc. I woke up with such a horrible kink in my neck! It honestly just went away a couple days ago. I woke up when the plane landed and was down right sick. I told Paul he had to take me seriously if I told him to pull over after we picked up our rental car. Thank goodness the guy at Avis gave me some headache meds. They saved my life!!!!! We picked up our rental car at the Denver airport and off to Wyoming we went :) Oh my gosh it was SO beautiful in Colorado and Wyoming!!!!!! The air was so amazing and thin. I kept saying "I love the way the air smells". The drive to Cheyenne was wonderful. No traffic and we took pictures of everything we saw along the way. Once we got into Cheyenne, we found the P.O.S.T. It's where police officers go to take their written test. While Paul was testing, I chatted up a storm with their secretary. I'm proud to say Paul got a 90% on his written test. I knew he would do well! After the test we found the Culvers and had lunch. They have the most amazing butter burgers!!! We also split a banana split. I'm sorry all you St. Louis readers.... Ted Drews has NOTHING on Culvers!!! It's so nice to finally be able to say that without having to witness the dirty looks! It's just how I roll ;) lol. We spent Friday driving around Cheyenne. We bought Paul a pair of running shoes and we were like kids in a candy store every time we'd find a new western store! I bought a new pair of jeans and an awesome blue plaid button up shirt. We found our hotel which ended up being right across the street from the mall. We had to check in at the diner next door and I can honestly say the hotel was so nice and clean and the free breakfast at the diner was AMAZING!!!!!! We will for sure stay there again when we go back to visit. Although we tried our best to stay awake Friday night to enjoy the sites a little more, we ordered pizza around 6 and were both fast asleep by 7:30pm and slept until 7:30 the next morning. Saturday we drove to Laramie, Wy. We wanted to see the University of Wyoming. We stopped by the team store and bought some fun things like t-shirts, sweat pants, this and that! Paul did a ride along with the Cheyenne PD and while he did that, I did some shopping and hung out at the hotel room. We had dinner at Olive Garden and I swear I ate my body weight in salad and pasta. It was SO good! Sunday we went to church, ate lunch at Culvers and mostly spent the day relaxing. We ordered pizza for dinner and watched the Olympics. By Sunday, we were shopped out and there is only so much you can see in Cheyenne. We did go for a drive that kinda spooked us both. I guess you had to be there. It was very Children of the Corn. Monday we woke up early, snacked on the way to the airport and made it to our gate WAY too early! We were glad we left when we did though b/c the engine light and the traction light came on in our rental car. I was determined the car was going to break down and we'd miss our flight. Needless to say, we made it there just fine and our plane landed in D.C. Monday evening around 7. Our trip was so much fun and sooooo needed!
Tuesday I went back to see my Dermatologist to have my 16 stitches removed. She had my results back and told me everything looks good. I have an apt to have a full skin assessment in 6 months. I do have 1 spot on my hand that I am watching. I'm sure it's just a freckle... but now I am super cautious when it comes to anything that looks different. I am so thankful everything looks good. This was such an eye opening experience for me. I've realized that there are so many parts of my life that I take for granted every single day. I want my family to know how much I love them. Especially my amazing husband who has given me such a wonderful life over the past 2 years. When my Dr first told me I had cancer, the first thought that came to my mind was "How could God give me such a wonderful man, only to take me from this life at an early age". With everything I have been through in my life, I was determined this damn cancer was not going to ruin my plans. I hope and pray every single day that as I continue to protect my skin, I will be free from any more cancer. They say your chances of it coming back are high. I realize that... but I am still going to have good thoughts and live life every day being thankful for everything God has given me.
Well, I'm sure you are all bored stiff by now.
Love,
LQ
